Pediatric emergencies have been overflowing for weeks in Montreal, while parents are struggling to see a doctor otherwise. Emergency physicians hope for more front-line resources and recall that it is not always necessary to consult when a child is sick.
Posted at 7:59 p.m.
“She has had a fever for 3, 4 days, then her nose runs and then she coughs,” says Frédérick, a young father met at the CHU Sainte-Justine in Montreal. “We are not able to have an appointment with our doctor, so we came to the emergency room. »
Frédérick and his spouse, Justine, risk having a long wait with their baby. “There are monster waiting times for the least sick patients”, warns the Dr Antonio D’Angelo, head of the Sainte-Justine emergency department. “They expect 2, 4 p.m. I even have patients who have waited 22 hours to see a doctor, it’s not human at all. »
At the moment and for weeks, the traffic at the CHU Sainte-Justine is much higher than normal on this date. “Our average is about 290 patients [par jour]so we see that there are certain days when it is 330, 340 patients, ”explains the Dr D’Angelo, while the average is around 220 normally. “These are volumes that are deleterious for us. »
Same story at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. “It’s really busy,” says emergency physician Harley Eisman. “Usually in mid-May, we see about 180 to 200 patients a day, and currently there are 280 to 300 checking in a day, sometimes more. »
For these specialists, the situation is explained in particular by the abundance of viruses currently in circulation and the return of good weather, which means that children go to play outside and injure themselves. They point out to this effect that, if babies under three months old who have a fever must see a doctor quickly, older children do not necessarily need a consultation.
But deteriorating access to frontline services also enters the equation, they say.
The telephone line One call, one appointment!, set up in September, was disconnected on March 31. The initiative of the Regional Department of General Medicine (DRMG) in Montreal allowed families to quickly obtain a medical appointment without going to the emergency room.
“The reduction in first-line accessibility has meant that patients no longer have many options,” laments Dr.r D’Angelo, so that many patients suffering from the flu, for example, come to “bog down” pediatric emergencies. He is calling for more time slots on the front line, in family medicine groups (GMF) and walk-in clinics, including evenings and weekends. “I think it’s critical that these services be offered at all times,” he says.
Asked about the relevance of disconnecting the line One call, one appointment!, the DRMG stresses that this was a temporary measure linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that it could be accessible again “if the situation should require it”. In the meantime, he points to the Rendez-vous santé Québec platform and the Info-Santé 811 line.
“The DRMG asked the CIUSSS [de Montréal] at the request of Sainte-Justine to see what could be put in place to promote access to clients aged 0 to 17,” adds Sébastien Blin, from the Regional Directorate for Access to Frontline Medical Services at the DRMG . He expects a return on Friday.